Can you have a “garden” that you ignore?
I don’t see why not.
Is That A Garden?
Indeed, some might argue that is what my front lawn currently is. I really don’t have a lawn. It’s an open space with fruit trees and other plants, mostly edible weeds. I just went out and counted 13 edible species of weeds, and nibbled on my mulberry tree which is coming into season.
When I stopped mowing my grass regularly, most of these weeds simply volunteered, and then reseeded themselves. I can eat greens for several months without any work beyond harvesting.
Is that a garden?
I’m Eating Mine, He’s Mowing His
I will admit to originally throwing around weed seeds but that was years ago. Yet, every year I get a crop of food off my lawn basically by neglecting it, or at least neglect by the authorities’ point of view. I have been cited twice for having an overgrown lawn in cul-du-sac suburbia.
That tells me I am doing something right.
In fact, as I write this blog and have breakfast, my neighbor is mowing his lawn, a stretch of decapitated grass that resembles a putting green.
I’m eating mine, he’s mowing his. I think I will lean back, put my feet up, sip some coffee, and listen to him work…. yeah, I know I am doing something right….
Hi Deane, you really are the best…
I practice a form of stewardship with many important considerations…the culmination of which is a pristine, wild environment throughout the suburban yard.
I work hard every day to try to get people (especially my neighbors) to stop mowing their “lawns”. It’s no surprise that the vast majority of people who mow–even the smallest piece of their property–have little or no knowledge of edible, wild plants. I have the most success in changing some of their minds when I point out to them that the “lawn” they thought was all grass is actually 90% edible species…and usually quite diverse.
All of the problems that humanity currently faces…are man-made problems. It is an issue of mentality and education…among other things. They simply don’t know any better, and they are too afraid to do anything different than their neighbors…who they assume know what they are doing.
To mow a lawn is to spit in the face of life itself. It is the indiscriminate massacre of countless living things, while burning fossil fuels, creating toxins, and destroying habitat so that not only the current residents are killed, but also the very possibility of future life.
I hope my tone is not too strong for your site…but it certainly is the truth.
Though you weren’t the first person I found when I began to learn of the plants and animals around me, you have been the best. Thank you for your time and energy spent on all of your videos and articles.
Your work continues to inspire.
P.S. In all of my searching for the ethno-botanical use of Microstegium Vimineum (Japanese Stiltgrass), I can not find information about eating the leaves or harvesting seeds for flour. It is technically invasive, but certainly naturalized…so I want to find info.
Best, C.G.
Google this: is Japanese stilt grass edible. For livestock, cows and sheep yes. One blogger noted her sheep eating everything other than the grass. Remedy suggested, with hold food, pen off stiltweed, always be sure plant is non toxic, and with hold salt block. Spray stilt grass with a bit of block salt water, turn hungry sheep into fenced area of stilt grass. Reader reply was it worked. I think my sheep would eat a rat if it was coated in mollases! Still laughing. My sources say stiltweed is not liked by deer, but is edible.